The movie is Kungfu Hustle
I had the impression that Chinese movies are going to get more and more popular in the US; that China is increasing its soft power. Now, it appears that China's soft power is still non-existent in the Western media. Chinese culture is popularized through restaurants, and the influence of overseas Chinese students and immigrants
I don't know how you got the impression that Chinese movies "are going to get more and more popular" in the US. Chinese movies, and that goes for Taiwanese and Hong Kong movies as well, first and foremost have their target audience in East and South East Asia. The people making Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon never made that movie with the intention of "making it big" in the US, or any other Western market. If anyone in the West are interested in watching them, they can always go and buy the home videos or their digital counterpart.
Kungfu Hustle was a Stephen Chow movie. Just an introduction, Stephen Chow is considered by many (if not all) fans of Hong Kong movies, to be the most influential and successful comedic actor of the 90s and early 2000s in Chinese cinema. Early on his career, he was been compared with Jim Carrey, but I'd argue that Stephen Chow ultimately surpassed him if we're talking about influence in their home markets.
Before Kungfu Hustle, there was Shaolin Soccer. It was the biggest comedy movie by far in the Chinese and South East Asian markets when it came out around the year 2001. In Malaysia, for example, Shaolin Soccer fever were like that of the movie Titanic. Its success cuts through all the different ethnic groups of Malaysia. Everyone were talking about it.
How much did Kungfu Hustle made at the theatres at America? How much did the average French, Italian or Spanish movie made for that matter?
In fact, it's getting harder and harder for movies to appeal at the same time in both the US and China. Transformers 4: Age of Extinction did very well in China, but was universally panned in the US. Like Blitzo says, when movie studios tried to pander to both markets, it fails to impress either one, like "The Great Wall".
Nowadays, successful Chinese movies are regularly making hundreds million of Dollars in the Chinese box office. Wolf Warrior 2 made over US$ 860 million in the mainland alone, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens' US$ 936 million in a single market. This trend is only going to continue. Chinese producers are in the movie making business solely for profits. So, unless American audiences' tastes in movies start to align with that of the Chinese, I don't foresee any Chinese movies to make any major inroads into the US market. Chinese box office earnings are set to surpass the US in the near future anyway, maybe even double it eventually.
If you guys in the US wants more Chinese movies in the future, I suggest you to support Chinese movies by buying the original hard or digital copy of them through whatever means. America is a free market. If enough profits is there, eventually there'll be a market for it.
Cheers